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Co-operative Travel withdraws from Cook joint venture
The joint venture between Thomas Cook Group and The Co-operative Group has come to an end after five years.
The Co-operative Group has decided to exercise its option to sell its 30% stake in the joint venture for £50 million.
Central England Co-operative, which was formerly known as Midlands Co-operative, has also sold its 3.5% stake for £5.8 million.
The joint venture has 764 stores in the UK across two brands.
The deal, due to be completed in November 2017, will see Thomas Cook take full control of its UK retail store network and rebrand the stores over the next two years.
But the move doesn’t mean the end of the Co-operative name associated with travel on the high street as a handful independent regional Co-op societies still operate travel businesses.
These include Midcounties Co-operative, which has 56 branches, plus Lincolnshire Co-operative, Radstock Co-operative and Central England, which kept a few of its branches out of the joint venture.
Thomas Cook Group chief executive Peter Fankhauser said: "Our relationship with the Co-op has given us a strong presence on the high street and fantastic colleagues across the UK, both of which are so important in attracting and inspiring our customers.
"This purchase gives us full control over our retail store network, enabling us to better integrate our stores with our online offering, while also helping us to focus on growing sales of added extras such as holiday-related financial services."
Thomas Cook said the transaction is not expected to have a material impact on its profit and loss account.
Rod Bulmer, chief executive, consumer services at the Co-op added: "We have enjoyed a successful partnership with Thomas Cook through the joint venture. Going forward, having a minority stake in a travel business does not fit with the strategy of the Co-op.
"The financial arrangements for exit that were put in place as part of the original JV agreement represent the best value for our members. The payments we receive from the exit will be used to invest in our core business areas."
Co-operative Group has been in the travel business since 1905, when it began to organise day excursions for retail co-operative societies.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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